Audiovisual Sport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Audiovisual Sport (AVS) is a Spanish company dedicated to "buy, manage, exploit and administer Spanish soccer's Liga and Copa del Rey rights.^[1]

The company was created in 1997 as a joint venture of the three main soccer TV rights owners in Spain, namely Sogecable (40%), Telefónica de Contenidos (a subsidiary of Telefónica) (40%), and the Catalan government TV network (Corporació Catalana de Ràdio i Televisió, or CCRTV) (20%). AVS enjoyed a monopoly on Spanish soccer rights, which caused an investigation by the European Commission, cleared in 2003^[2].

In 2003 Sogecable bought Telefónica's stake, therefore increasing its share to 80%.

In 2007 a row erupted between AVS and the other main owner of Spanish soccer rights, namely Mediapro^[3].